(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method of planning and managing real-time postal delivery work. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method of planning and managing real-time postal delivery work that formulates a delivery plan according to delivery workload in real time, provides information about the delivery plan, and provides and manages information about collection work of returned and confirmed mail items.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A mail center is generally located in a metropolitan area where a large quantity of mail items are received and delivered. The quantity of mail items to be delivered from the metropolitan area to a local area is large, while the quantity of mail items to be delivered from the local area to the metropolitan area is small. At present, there is no method that can effectively control the flow of mail items. Accordingly, it is difficult to improve traffic quality, and to detect and cope with a factor for bottlenecks due to a rapid increase in the quantity of mail items.
In the related art, a technology for logistics automation and delivery service is known, which achieves efficient delivery and receipt of items. According to this technology, there is provided a method that can efficiently perform delivery work or receipt work of mail items having a large volume, or of small volume mail items such as special mail items or home-delivered parcels, using transportation vehicles.
In addition, various methods have been used to process the mail items. For example, there is known a method that provides a logistics service by receiving delivery confirmation from a recipient and acquiring receipt request information, a method that registers a plurality of destination addresses and delivers mail items on the basis of information about a registered delivery request area, and a method that, if a mail item is put into a mailbox (i.e., receptacle), allows a mail carrier to confirm the mail item, thereby achieving ease of collection.
Meanwhile, an automatic sorting process function is maximized by inserting a zip code into a barcode. However, there is a problem in that a mail item may be received with no barcode for automatic sorting that should be printed during the receipt procedure.
To overcome such a problem, there is suggested a method that uses a barcode for an automatic process when an address or a zip code is not recognized during the automatic sorting process, a method that calculates postal charges on the basis of the result of automatic sorting of received mail items, thereby effectively supporting generation and receipt of a quantity of mail items, and a method that attaches a label for ease of an automatic process of returned mail items and mail items to be resent due to reports of change of address.
In the related art, the delivery and collection routes are generated on the basis of the quantity of mail items. At this time, the quantity information may depend on information that is input by a receptionist or a sender who sends a mail item for delivery, and the delivery work may be performed in the same district, street, or block, rather than to remote locations. In addition, during the receipt, information such as address information or a recipient name needs to be input for delivery confirmation.
When the related art is applied to a general postal service, the following need to be taken into consideration.
First, in a case of a general mail item that is directly received from an individual, a delivery address may not be input. Then, if a customer himself/herself inputs a delivery address as receipt information for each mail item during the receipt work, a receipt waiting time may be increased, and thus receipt work may not be normally performed.
Second, when a large quantity of mail items are received, delivery address information files are all received, and it takes a lot of computer resources, network bandwidths for transmission to delivery post offices, and operational costs to receive receipt data, to calculate the quantity information from a large quantity of information, and to transmit the quantity information to the delivery post offices.
Third, unlike parcels (i.e., home-delivered parcels), which are of a small quantity and require high postal charges, in the case of the general mail items, which are of a large quantity and do not require delivery confirmation, information for efficient automatic sorting processing, information about presorting for calculating postal charges (e.g., quantity information according to first 3 digits or 6 digits of the zip code, or the sorting machine ID), and information about presence/absence of a barcode are received. In this case, however, since a large number of delivery locations exist and information about the delivery locations is lacking, it may be difficult to generate a delivery plan and a delivery route in advance and manage the delivery plan and the delivery route.
In the related art described above, even if a large quantity of mail items are received in the mail center, the dispatch and arrival sorting work are performed without delay. However, in the delivery post offices, the quantity of mail items to be delivered may exceed the actual delivery capability of the postman (i.e., deliveryman). In this case, the traffic quality may be deteriorated, and thus the delivery quality may not be secured.
Furthermore, the general mail item must be delivered within 3 days from the date the mail item is received. A mail item may often arrive at the delivery post office through a mail center a day before the scheduled delivery completion date. Then, the traffic quality may be changed according to the quantity of mail items to be delivered.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method that can enable the mail items to be effectively delivered without delay when the quantity of mail items to be delivered is large. In addition, it is necessary to provide information about the quantity of mail items to be delivered for calculating the workload of the delivery post office in advance according to a variation in information about the quantity of mail items to be received, for formulating a work plan on the basis of the scheduled quantity of mail items to arrive (i.e., scheduled arrival time) according to a dispatch sorting work result in the mail center, and for taking countermeasures when the quantity exceeds the average.
That is, there is a need for a system for planning and managing postal delivery work that can enable each delivery post office to detect a variation in the workload in advance on the basis of information when a large quantity of mail items are received, such that the postal delivery work can be effectively performed. Furthermore, it is necessary to provide and manage information for computing a criterion for defining the criteria of the average quantity of postal items to be processed, the maximum quantity of mail items to be processed, and the minimum quantity of mail items to be processed in the delivery post office, and generating a ratio (i.e., the criterion of the maximum quantity of mail items to be delivered) according to the monthly or yearly distribution of the quantity of mail items, to thereby effectively manage the manpower and instruments as the resources.